Hyundai Motor North America will be getting more playing time with football fans this season.
The Fountain Valley-based automaker became presenting sponsor of NBC’s Sunday Night Football kickoff show.
Sunday Night Football has been the No. 1 prime-time show for seven consecutive seasons and averaged more than 18 million viewers per week last season, according to Hyundai.
Hyundai has been the official National Football League sponsor for three seasons, giving it and its dealers permission to use logos of the NFL and its teams, as well as the term Super Bowl for promotions. But this deal gives the automaker more face time with consumers as the lead-in to each week’s game.
Chief Marketing Officer Dean Evans said the deal allows it “to reach the NFL’s largest broadcast audience each week.”
Financial terms of the arrangement were undisclosed.
Hyundai said the new deal features logo animations and in-studio and a broadcast countdown clock, as well as scoreboard logo placements, among other branding elements.
A three-part “Cover 2” branded content series will be developed with a former player from each team playing the night’s game discussing “aspects of the rivalry that make it special to them, the fans and the teams, while driving around the home team’s city in a Hyundai Santa Fe.”
The videos will run during the following matchups: the Baltimore Ravens vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sept. 30, the Los Angeles Rams vs. the San Francisco 49ers on Oct. 21, and the Green Bay Packers vs. the Minnesota Vikings on Nov. 25. Thirty-second versions of the videos will air during broadcasts, and fans can watch the full show on Hyundai’s website.
In-house ad agency Innocean USA in Huntington Beach will develop the series.
Teeing Off
Los Alamitos-based digital marketing agency Infused Digital built its business helping clients like Las Vegas-based energy drinks maker Rockstar Inc. and Los Alamitos tattoo-inspired fashion label Sullen Clothing Inc. create video campaigns in partnership with Los Angeles-based content studio Dilemma.
But this month the two are working together to produce their own original video series, “Big Shots.”
The golf show concept, filmed at OC golf courses, will debut on social media platforms in early October, coinciding with the start of the PGA’s Safeway Open in Napa. The PGA isn’t involved in the project.
The self-funded series is intended to remind viewers that putting greens aren’t only for the elite.
Infused Digital founder and Chief Executive John Bayles said his company has worked with Dilemma for nearly a decade.
“[Founder] J.C. Christofilis has consistently impressed me with his stellar writing skills, production acumen and incomparable taste,” Bayles said in a statement. “His deep well of experience working with Hollywood studios will ensure the content we create together will offer an elevated level of storytelling and production values.”
Christofilis added that the series is just the beginning, hinting that other original projects are in the works, including a feature film.
“My relationship with John has evolved and come full circle, where we have decided to combine each other’s strengths in the online video space to produce more Hollywood-level content initiatives right here in the heart of OC.”
Bits & Pieces
Billabong International Ltd. Global Brand President Shannan North was appointed president of Laguna Niguel-based trade group Surf Industry Manufacturers Association. He succeeds Rip Curl Chief Executive Kelly Gibson. Stokehouse Unlimited Chief Executive and longtime surf industry executive Paul Naude will serve as the organization’s vice president. … Costa Mesa-based home construction data firm Meyers Research, a Kennedy Wilson company, named Rani Salehi vice president of marketing, a new position. Salehi previously served in leadership roles at Entrust Datacard, HID Global, Alteryx and IBM. … Speedo USA in Cypress took to Instagram and Twitter this month to announce it signed two-time Olympic medalist and world-record holder Kathleen Baker, who announced this month that she will turn pro and forgo her last year of swimming at the University of California-Berkeley.
